Robots invading Rockford for FIRST competition

ROCKFORD — Last year, it was throwing Frisbees. This year, it’s a game that’s part volleyball and part basketball. And it’s all done with robots.

The region’s five FIRST Robotics Competition teams are used to taking their show on the road, facing off against teams from across the nation in places like Milwaukee and Chicago. This weekend, they’re bringing the action, and 27 other teams from five states, to Rockford for the second annual Rock River Off-Season Competition.

The competition runs all day Saturday at Rock Valley College. And members of the public are not only invited to come, they’re encouraged to bring young people who may want to join in the fun. Teams are made up of ninth through 12th grades from public, private and home schools.

It’s a great time and quite a sight, too, said Rockford Robotics team mentor Chris Magee. Six hundred participants are expected.

“Some kids are in costumes. There’s loud music. Everyone’s having a good time,” Magee said. “That was one of the challenges to us this year, to ‘make it loud.’ Spread the word about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Make it exciting. Make it so parents and kids know what it is and have no trouble finding a robotics team to join. We want to make it as easy as finding a soccer team or Little League.”

The competition is hosted by the region’s FIRST Robotics teams — Freeport MetalHeads, Rockford Robotics, Flaming Monkeys (Belvidere), Stateline Robotics (Hononegah) and Winnovation (Winnebago) — and sponsored by Woodward and UTAS. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. It was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway.

Every year in early January, teams gather for watch parties to find out what that year’s competition will be and start coming up with ideas for a robot. The team then designs and builds a single robot that it takes to competitions. Robots must be programmed and operate by remote control.

This year’s game is called Aerial Assist. It’s played with two teams of three robots each. Teams need to use their robots to get a rubber exercise ball from one end of a flat court to the other and into a goal. They get more points for passing the ball from robot to robot, and some goals are worth more points than others. Matches last 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

Team Winnovation is coming off a big win at another off-season competition, last weekend’s Indiana Robotics Invitational, where 68 teams competed.

The team is celebrating its 10th year in competition, too.

“As much as it’s about engineering, it’s about team building,” said Winnovation coordinator Karen Hill. “It’s a great experience for students who may want to test the waters and see what kind of engineering they’re most interested in.”

Students that participate in FIRST Robotics Competitions earn millions of dollars a year in college scholarships.